Chapter 37: The Courtyard

“This is it!”

Larry, his heavy breathing now steady, spoke with a tone of palpable excitement. The squad had ventured just a little further into the forest, and as the density of the structures in the grass along the roadside increased, they finally arrived at their destination.

“Is this where the adventurer found the wooden token?” Haian the half-elf held his longbow, his silver-gray eyes scanning the surroundings with intense curiosity.

It was a sprawling courtyard complex. Unlike the scattered ruins they had passed earlier, this site remained largely intact, with most of the architectural structures preserved. This allowed Xia Nan to compare the site against the knowledge from his past life as he observed it.

The layout was perfectly symmetrical along the central axis of the main gate, with rows of houses on either side—ordered and aesthetically pleasing. It featured classic black-tiled roofs and white walls, with eaves that curved upward as lightly and gracefully as birds in flight. The beams and pillars were coated in black lacquer and adorned with exquisite cloud-pattern carvings. The doors and windows were complex, delicate lattice structures, though the paper that once covered them had long since rotted away, leaving only ragged scraps at the edges.

“It’s exactly the same,” Xia Nan whispered to himself.

At the same time, his gaze swept across the courtyard and paused, sensing something deeply unnatural. In his memory, the mansions of ancient nobility always featured ponds of varying sizes. Whenever someone walked by, schools of koi would swim up, begging for food. This courtyard was no exception; it had high-arched pedestrian bridges, winding, intricate corridors, and even a classical stone pavilion extending straight into the center of what should have been a lake.

Everything seemed normal—provided you ignored the lush, dense bushes and tall grass growing beneath the pavilions and corridors. Forget a lake or pond; there wasn’t even a puddle of water in the entire courtyard! Even though the site couldn’t have been built more than a few months ago, there was no trace of water beneath the arched bridges or lakeside pavilions. It was as if they had been built directly on top of the meadow.

Seeing this eerie scene, Xia Nan became even more convinced of his theory: these buildings absolutely did not belong to this world.

“Huh?”

An exclamation of surprise from Larry cut through his thoughts. Looking over, Xia Nan saw Larry standing in front of a rockery, his chubby face filled with bewilderment. Following his gaze, Xia Nan’s own expression turned strange.

“Clipping?”

On the upper left side of the rockery, the craggy, pale stone had eerily fused with the branches of an oak tree next to it. The rough gray stone interlaced with the emerald green leaves, interwoven and overlapping, contrasting yet perfectly flush, as if they had been born that way. It was just like a glitch in the poorly made games of his past life where models collided and clipped into one another—only here, in the real world, it felt even more natural, as if this were the奇景 (bizarre spectacle) produced by forcibly shifting objects from one world into the space of another, without regard for the local reality.

Meanwhile, Haian and Wood were focused on something else. They were making a final verification of the mission’s objective.

“Young Master…” Wood pulled his gaze away from the architectural carvings he had been comparing repeatedly. He shook his head slowly at the half-elf. “Confirmed. It is not the style of the Matriarch’s clan.”

While elven architecture varied by environment, sub-race, and lifestyle, there was one universal constant: integration with nature. Whether it was green vines and thorns or bioluminescent moss and fungi, elven architecture always worked closely with the surrounding natural environment. These houses, while using wood and brick in a masterful way, were fundamentally different from the aesthetic of the elven race.

Haian’s face showed clear disappointment, but that was all. He had been psychologically prepared for this. Having received confirmation from Wood, the half-elf exhaled a breath of relief, as if a burden had been lifted from his heart. He called Xia Nan and Larry over and said sincerely:

“The mission is concluded. I have my answer.”

“We’ve been in the forest for many days. If there are no objections, we can start our return journey now.”

Larry and Doris had grown up in towns. They weren’t necessarily pampered, but they hadn’t endured this kind of hardship before. Having spent so many days in the Mist Forest, seen adventurers, and survived monsters, they were satisfied. They had no reason to oppose Haian’s proposal to leave.

Xia Nan, however, didn’t respond immediately, his face showing hesitation. He had joined Haian’s squad not for the pay, but to uncover the origin of the wooden token. Now, as they ventured deeper and familiar architecture continued to appear, the truth seemed within reach. To return now…

Noticing Xia Nan’s hesitation and misinterpreting it as concern over the payment, Haian quickly added: “Don’t worry. Even though the mission results aren’t what I expected, your 100 gold coins will be paid in full.”

Before the words were even out of his mouth, Larry slapped his chest, acting with great generosity: “I’ll cover the reward! If not for you, I’d probably be dead in the mouth of those Rust Monsters from last night. 100 gold is nothing—I’d pay 500!”

Since Xia Nan couldn’t explain his biggest secret—his transmigration—he just glanced toward the deeper, darker reaches of the forest beyond the courtyard.

He mused: “We are still on the outer fringe, but we’re nearing the border. Any further in, even with a Professional in the party, there’s no guarantee of safety. And given the pattern of the buildings, if I want to find the source of the token, I have to go deep into the Mist Forest.”

With his current strength, that was too dangerous. “Maybe… I’ll come back later?”

The thought lasted only an instant. Faced with their enthusiasm, Xia Nan nodded and agreed to the return journey.

Like tourists in his past life who bought local souvenirs to prove they had been somewhere, even if they weren’t interested in the site, Larry and Doris wouldn’t return empty-handed. They started searching for portable mementos.

“Whoa! This stone statue is actually really well-made—finer than the work of the craftsmen in the city!” Larry exclaimed, pulling a stone snake statue out from some forgotten corner. It was the thickness of an arm, every scale carved with incredible detail, the body coiled and fangs bared in a striking pose. It was lifelike.

But Xia Nan frowned. This stone statue did not look like the style of the Eastern civilization he remembered.

“Hey! Come over, everyone, come over!” Larry shouted. “There’s a statue of a Rust Monster here too! It looks exactly like the one we fought yesterday!”

Hearing this, Wood—who had been standing behind Haian—suddenly darkened in expression as if he’d realized something. His figure blurred, and in the next second, he was shielding the half-elf behind him, letting out a low, guttural roar:

“ALERT!!!”